Lobo was hot in Vietnam during the 70’s.
Decades later, on an American stage, his Vietnamese fans even invited him to perform live for music video.
Just a simple man.
“I love you too much to ever start liking you, so let’s just let the story kind an end…”
The contradiction and dialectic – friend and lover.
How can I tell people about Vietnam.
Its soul, its sentiment, its sorrow (of war).
People on both sides don’t talk about it.
Nobody wants to talk about it.
In Matterhorn, we got a glimpse of what it was like back then by a Yale scholar. It took him more than 30 years to pen his experience.
In Bao Ninh‘s Sorrows of War, it took him less time, but painful nevertheless.
It eats you up from the inside.
You can’t forget it.
Everyone was affected by it.
The younger generation only heard about it.
The older buried it.
But it grows inside, like a cancer.
Sudden loss, separation and interruption.
One cannot swim in the same river twice.
Maybe you can go back in place, but not in time.
First cut is the deepest.
Now you hear only sentimental songs whose lyricst barely scratch the surface.
Who will speak for them?
Who can understand them?
Betrayal and bewilderment.
How can I tell her about you.
I am just a simple man.
I love you too much to ever start liking you.
So Lobo incidentally touched the nerves (top of the chart in US as well).
Just you and me and the dog named Boo.
Rhyme and rhythm.
Chorus and replay.
It gets right under your skin.
And stays there.
The artist has moved on.
But his fans are still lingering.
Like the smell of napalm.
The taste of Pall Mall, among other PX supplies: peanut butter and jelly,
cheese and fruit cake.
Go go girls in leather boots and mini-skirts.
Bob Hope and the choppers’ drops.
When I saw you standing there, I felt the blood goes to my feet.
Baby, I love you to want me.
Unassuming, unpretentious.
Pure longing and pure loss.
Fleeting flirt and life-time sorrow.
On top of the sorrows of war.
On top of post-war reconstruction.
There is still a glimpse of hope, of finding love once again.
Maybe this time, it’s different.
Maybe, when I saw you standing there, I once again, felt the blood goes to my feet.
Nobody cares if Lobo no longer stays at the top of the chart.
To the Vietnamese heart which he once conquered, Lobo occupied a well-deserving spot. I once felt ashamed that I had liked him. Now I no longer want to please what’s trendy. Just stay there, my simple man, because “everything seems right, whenever I am with you”……..
Thang Nguyen 555 